Drawing with Beads

Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Morning glory

This time of year the morning glories have taken over the garden. They have grown over the railings of the porch and up the stalks of the sunflowers. There are so many flowers on them each day that it seems a shame to pull them out.

Some times I see a bloom with velvet purple and pink and I think I would like to make that flower out of beads. Unfortunately the vibrant purple is a tough color to match in seed beads, not to mention the challenges of making a beadwork flower that would hold its shape and rigidity without being too flat. The other day I received a package of size 11 Toho purple lined rosaline beads I had ordered from Art Beads and decided to try out some ideas I had. To fill out my palette I chose some bright transparent purple AB, a vintage French rose, Toho gilt lined lavender opal, Miyuki matte pink lined purple, and a Czech translucent white in size 11.

My idea involved using one of my least used techniques, brick stitch. The standard circular technique seemed like it would be too floppy and not have the look I wanted for my finished flower. I have started working on a design I think will work, but as usual I won't be sure until its finished.